Someone must have mentioned James's chair in la Sylphide, and the ring and his tam -- actually, the moment when he holds up the ring, before giving it to Effie, which allows the Sylphide to take it from him and put it on her own hand, is perhaps the single greatest use of a prop I can think of in a ballet, since the gateway the two make as she reaches up for the ring is a fleeting image, but it marks the moment in which his heart enters the imaginary world and leaves this one behind. It's only reinforced when she throws his tam on the floor and he picks it up and follows her out the door into the other world....

The ribbons in Fille-- the BEST is the cummerbund that turns into a true-love knot -- which -- can it be coincidence? -- echoes the Mexican wedding dance "la Bamba" (as danced by the Ballet Folklorico de Mexico) where exactly the same motif occurs -- she takes hold of his cummerbund, he spins out of it, it's revealed to be 10 feet long, and then they lay it on the floor and kick it together with their feet and artfully craft it into a true-love know which tat the end of the dance they lift up and display to the audience in a flurry of zapateado footwork and the audience goes crazy.....